The most famous and fondly recalled of Gracie Fields' British vehicles, Sing
as We Go! captures vividly the sights, sounds, slang, customs and attitudes of
the working classes in 1930s industrial Lancashire, while at the same time
conveying a genuine sense of joyousness and delight. The effect is something
akin to a George Formby film directed by Humphrey Jennings.

Unusually for a variety-to-film crossover performer, Fields has tremendous
ease and expansiveness before the camera (though she never really enjoyed making
films). Her comic persona may have the simplicity of the music hall turn, but
she conveys an authenticity that made her beloved by her public to a degree
enjoyed by few celebrities before or since. (The Daily Telegraph described the
effect of her death on her birthplace of Rochdale as like "having a bit of the
old town knocked down".)

Scripted by playwright and novelist J.B. Priestley, the film is incredibly
fast moving, basically a series of sketches linked by songs, romantic
complications and the all-pervading reality of the mill closure.

The presentation of working life, though clearly hard, is striking for its
total lack of cynicism. In particular there is not a trace of class antagonism.
The Boss, invariably a suspicious or curmudgeonly presence when George Formby
works for him, is here charming, young, personable and caring. Out of work hours
he enjoys a relaxed and affectionate friendship with Gracie (though the
character of Phyllis seems to be there mainly to stop us worrying about that
friendship going any further).

Fields herself serves as a kind of halfway figure between the workers and the
middle classes, accepted unconditionally by both. It is telling, therefore, that
she is not reinstated in her old lowly job at the end but is instead appointed
Welfare Officer, a function symbolic of good industrial relations. Whether
trooping dejectedly out or marching happily back through the gates of this most
un-satanic mill, the workers sing as they go each time.

One could add that the film also unconditionally embraces modernity. We never
learn the secrets of Sir William's revolutionary artificial silk, but its
beneficial effect upon the manufacturing industry and those who rely on it for
their livelihood is never doubted. The Man in the White Suit (d. Alexander
Mackendrick, 1953) is still over fifteen years away, and everything in Sing As
We Go! exudes optimism.